Cars.com has acquired NewCars.com, one of the industry's largest generators of new car automotive purchase requests. NewCars.com derives prospects from search-engine marketing initiatives and drives them "from search to sale" by connecting them with dealers.

Cars.com said the acquisition expands its presence in the new-car market and enables it to expand its dealer-advertising offering. Cars.com is partnered with more than 200 leading metro newspapers, television stations and their Websites and lists more than 1.4 million vehicles from 10,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private- parties.

Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, a strategic joint venture owned by six leading media companies (Belo Corp., Gannett Co. Inc., Knight Ridder Inc., The McClatchy Co., Tribune Co. and The Washington Post Co.). Classified Ventures operates Cars.com, Homescape, and Apartments.com, and it recently acquired real-estate marketing company HomeGain.

NewCars.com will operate as a division of Classified Ventures and will maintain its headquarters in Santa Monica, California and offices in Birmingham, MI. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.